Roots-And So It Began

Yes, Wallace was tough in those days and was probably exceeded in toughness only by fellow Coeur D' Alene Mining District town, Burke, Idaho, and Butte, Montana. It was the aforementioned once great mining mecca of Burke, Idaho that my roots began.

1929-ah yes, a dark, notorious year in the history of our great nation.Let's face it, with the great stock market crash of 1928 just two months removed, the entire country had been plunged into what historians call the "Great Depression" and the mood of the nation was mired in deep twin holes of doom and gloom.

Perhaps in the mind of the youth, though, there beat the drum of a glorious future. Yes, they saw the tears of hurt, confusion, and even anger on the faces of their parents and while they may have understood on the surface the dark mood of a country formerly bathed in the light of sunshine and hope, they also refused to light the flickering light of their dreams of a better tomorrow die out.

Against this backdrop of a collapsed economy and a nation reeling like a drunken bar patron, one family from Missouri found their way on the move in the hope of landing jobs in the mineral-rich mountains of Idaho. A fourteen-year-old kid from Joplin, Missouri arrived with his six brothers, father, and mother in the rough and tumble world of the notorious mining town of Burke, Idaho. The fourteen years old boy would may years later become the man I call "Dad".

Their route would carry them many miles from their home in Missouri to LosAngeles, Portland, Seattle, and finally the fabulously wealthy mining district called Burke.They came for the same reason many families were making cross-country treks.survival! My grandfather, although a very young man by today's standards, was disabled from years of working in the mines of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas. His lungs were shot, and money was non-existent.


It was up to the boys in the family to carry the load and provide food for everyone.My Dad was a big, very strong country boy who had no problem looking older than his actual age, So, he lied about his age and was hired at the Austin Leasing Company, a large mine in those early years located about a mile this side of Burke, high up in the hills.The camp had its own boarding house, and the young miners made the trek up the mountain every week, and then went home on the weekends.

The barbers, dentists, pharmacies, grocery stores, hotels, boarding houses, churches, and schools, and of course a host of bars are now just faded memories of a once booming mining mecca, but for those of us who sprang from those roots, the toughness is in our genes.our minds, and in our hearts. We are fighters, and we don't run from adversity.

Yes, my Idaho roots came via Missouri to Burke, and on to Wallace, where from the age of four, I grew up.And so it began.

The Travesty of Professor Travis

Yes, Wallace and Burke certainly produced their share of colorful and offbeat characters, The "old days" in Wallace and Burke were about survival, about toughness, and about dreams of riches that would lessen the burdens of life. Life was day to day. Survival was day to day. Dreams could be turned to nightmares with one flick of Nature unleashing a torrent of sliding snow that could bury entire towns.Creeks could rise and crash over their banks into the streets, carrying away homes and possessions, and one spark of fire could end up burning down an entire neighborhood or town. If you were not cut out for the hardships of life in the mining towns of Wallace and Burke, you could end up like poor Professor Travis.

As some of you may know, music was my thing in school, and I was a music and theology major in college. I wanted to return to Wallace and become the band teacher, but of course, that dream never happened because I went into the hotel field as you know from my earlier blogs.Music teachers are sometimes  thought of as, well, being kind of quaint. Maybe they are. Television shows and movies certainly portray them as being a little off beat. Maybe poor Professor Travis was just a little too offbeat for the folks of Wallace. I really don't know anything about him except for this article I happened across while researching Robert Sage.

Date-September 7, 1903-Wallace,Idaho

Friends of Professor Travis,the local professor of music,who was sent to Blackfoot this week,took steps to have him released from custody, for they did not think him insane.An attorney was engaged and before a writ of habeas corpus was applied for he went to the jail to talk the matter over with Travis.
When the attorney entered the jail and exchange greetings Travis was asked how he was feeling.
"Well", he replied, " I am feeling fine but I can't sleep.I have no place upon which to rest."
Mr, Addie, the attorney was astonished for near where the professor was seated was his comfortable bunk." Why, here is your bed and a splendid place upon which to rest yourself." observed Mr. Addie,pointing to the bunk.
"Sleep there!",replied the professor." Why don't see you see the water and gas pipes coming up through it? I would get soaking wet if I lady down there. I might just as well sleep in the creek."
The writ was not applied for.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19030907&id=SaxXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kfMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5817,3090950&hl=en

I don't know what happend to the good Professor Travis, but I guess life in the early days of Wallace were just a little to hard for him. 

Here Comes the Judge-The Strange Saga of Sage-

Yes, the Sages had the world at their fingertips and their futures together as husband and wife, attorneys at law, was the thing Hallmark is made for. They settled in Detroit, and somewhere between Robert's 25th birthday and his 41st birthday, he became a Common Pleas Judge.But, also in that same time frame, something was happening inside the good judge's mind. Maybe it was because of the blows that he had endured in the ring. Maybe it was the pressure of years of study and the practice of law. Maybe it was the pressure of the duties of being a judge, or maybe, maybe there was something else at work here.Let's see what the Lewiston Evening Journal had to say.

dateline-Detroit-
A state wide police search for Common Pleas Judge Robert E Sage was underway today as a result of a shooting which left one man dead and two others wounded in the judge's office in the county buiding.
Inspector Paul O, Whitman of the homicide squad quoted the two wounded men as saying that the 41- year od judge " seemed to go suddenly haywire" during an argument last night with three business partners in a business enterprise,drew a pistol from his desk and began firing.
Ralph Nadell,48, of suburban Birmingham, fell with a bullet through his head. Al Nadell,39, his brother and Maurice D Smilay, a 56 year old Detroit attorney, suffred shouder wounds,
By the time poice arrived Judge Sage, a veteran politician, a former lumberjack, and professioanll prize fighter had fled hatless and coatless from the building
Smilay said the four men had  gathered in the judge's office to duscuss a court decision which threatened the existence of Sports Park here. All were directors of the Park, hee said, and Judge Sage had invested heavily in it.
During the argument which deveoped, Whitman quoted Smilay as sayig the judge suddenly produced the pistol and cried "this will pacify everybody" and opened fire.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19401002&id=5Zc0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=52kFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2220,119573&hl=en

There was no fairytale ending the saga of Robert E Sage. The strange saga of Sage ended when the former boxer, lawyer, judge, and Burke product, shot himself. He was dead at the ripe old age of 41

Yes, Wallace and Burke produced some very colorful characters, and all of us Wallace and Burke natives are their lineage.

Sage-From Boxer To Lawyer To Judge-The Dream

Robert E Sage of Burke,Idaho was a good enough pugilist to make enough money to attend law school, but not quite good enough to win it all. His record stood at 22 wins,12 losses, and 2 draws. He recorded  9 wins by knockout, and in return was knocked out 2 times. It must have been a tough way to pay for school, but young Robert had a dream, a dream that later turned into a nightmare that would have made a great movie.

No doubt young Robert was bright, and he must have understood that his destiny was not to be found in the burgeoning, dirty, raucous, suffocating ,canyon walls that birthed the mining camp of Burke, Idaho. No, his destiny was to be found somewhere else, where his fighting talents could be modified to a new type of ring, the courtroom.

Detroit University was Sage's choice to study law, and while he was studying torts contracts,and other matters of  law, he continued to box  to pay the bills. Perhaps, though, money may not have been the only reason he continued to hit and be hit for a living. Maybe he enjoyed the punishment that he would dole out on a weaker opponent. Maybe, he loved the game of trying to out maneuver a worthy adversary, ducking, weaving, bobbing , and then moving in to deliver a knockout blow.Maybe, he enjoyed the test of the mettle of getting up off of the canvas after being knocked off his feet, trying to rise up while the cuckoo birds were still popping in and out in the clock of his mind.

It was while doing double duty of young advocate by day and  ring warrior by night that Sage decided to merge his life and the life of Miss Catherine McIntosh, a fellow former classmate at Detroit University and a practicing attorney. The bride to be had this to say about Robert's night job.

Bob is going to continue to box for a year after we are married. After that, he will probably retire from the ring and we will practice law together.

The Spokane Daily Chronicle article went on to say that  Miss McIntosh did not see her fiance fight Greb for the middleweight title, not that she did not want to, but he would not let her. Sage trained in Spokane that summer and fought in Wallace against a boxer by the name of Billy Conly. Both Catherin and Robert were a whopping 24 years old. Thier futures looked unlimited with nothing but bright sunshine ahead.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19250113&id=w81XAAAAIBAJ&sjid=e_QDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6550,2125334&hl=en


Next- Here comes the judge and the strange saga of Sage.